Can GDB change the assembly code of a running program?

user_437095 0
Viewed 22613

I want to add some extra funcionality to /bin/ls.
So I started it on gdb and added a breakpoint at the beginning.

Now question is: how can I change the code of a running program in memory? I can see the assembly code, but I'm not able to modify. How can I do it?

On Windows I can easily do this with olldbg for example. How about on Linux?

(I know that doing this I will only change the code of the process in memory. So then I can dump memory to a file, and then I'll have my changes saved in a binary file).

Thank you.

x86 gdb linux debugging
5 Answers

You can use gcc-plugin to write an extension to modify your coed and add any additional functionality in easy way during compilation process. if you work on machine level code, you should use binary instrumentation tools like Pin and Dyninst to instrument your binary file on the disk. however, if the overhead is important issue, you should work carefully with such tools.

user_47321220
Related